Science
press releases.

Science4 Jun 2024

UTA scientists recognized nationally for inventions and innovation

Researchers from The University of Texas at Arlington received 20 utility patents for their work in 2023, contributing to the University of Texas System’s overall ranking of No. 3 in the Top 100 U.S. Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents in 2023 list. Compiled by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the rankings are based on data obtained from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The University of California system and Massachusetts Institute of Technology claimed the top ...

Read the release

Science4 Jun 2024

Frequent mowing puts poisonous weed into survival mode

By John Lovett University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A study of the effects of mowing on a common weed has found that what doesn’t kill you can make you stronger. A study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports has found that frequent mowing of Solanum elaeagnifolium may help create a “superweed.” Solanum elaeagnifolium — also known as silverleaf nightshade — can be found from south Texas to South Africa and Greece, infesting fields and soaking up valuable nutrients intended for cash crops. The weed with purple flowers – sometimes white and light ...

Read the release

Science4 Jun 2024

Unveiling how German cockroaches came to live with humans

by Brooke McDonald It turns out a common cockroach found across the globe is a pest of our own making. In a study recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Texas A&M AgriLife researchers unveiled insights into the origins of the common German cockroach, Blattella germanica. The study, “Solving the 250-year-old ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Centering relationships between people and place: A critical step towards improving science's contributions to society

Slowing down the pace may not be common in academia, but it could lead to better science to support our planet through the current climate, biodiversity and social justice crises. This is one approach suggested by a diverse group of marine conservation scientists who were brought together in 2021 by the COMPASS “Leaders for Sea Change” Science Communication program. In a new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the co-authors consider three pathways to better connect with the places they study. Frequently, scientific expertise to address the global change crisis comes ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Mobile app predicts future depression in pregnant people

A simple survey delivered during the first trimester through digital pregnancy support app MyHealthyPregnancy predicted which mothers went on to develop moderate to severe depression with a high level of accuracy, according to a new Archives of Women’s Mental Health study led by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC researchers. “Depression is a leading complication during pregnancy with about 15% of patients reporting symptoms at some point in their pregnancy journey,” said lead author Tamar Krishnamurti, Ph.D., associate professor of general internal medicine ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Research optimizes biological control of pest that severely damages soybean crops

An article published in the journal Insects determines with precision the dispersal range of a type of wasp that neutralizes the Brown stink bug, Euschistus heros, a major soybean pest in Brazil and highly resistant to chemical insecticides. The solution discussed by the authors is Telenomus podisi, a parasitoid micro wasp first described by American entomologist William Harris Ashmead in 1893. Parasitoids are small insects whose immature stages develop either within or attached to the outside of other insects. They ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Traffic speeds decrease when bike lane is present

Rutgers University–New Brunswick researchers conducting a study at a high-traffic intersection in a Jersey Shore town have found that the installation of a bike lane along the road approaching the convergence reduced driving speeds. As many traffic analyses have identified speeding as a contributing factor in a majority of crashes, inducing such a “traffic calming” effect with a bike lane could enhance road safety and decrease the risk and severity of crashes, the researchers said. The research was published in The Journal of Urban Mobility. “We are giving you more evidence that bike lanes save lives,” said Hannah Younes, a lead author of the study and a postdoctoral ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Ancient Greece expert named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The University of Cincinnati’s Jack Davis, Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek archaeology in the Department of Classics, has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. With this honor, Davis joins the ranks of luminaries such as former U.S. President John Adams (elected in 1780), language scholar Noah Webster (of dictionary fame, tapped in 1799), and more currently playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, and actor and philanthropist George Clooney. Begun just four years after the Declaration of Independence ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Presence of carpal tunnel syndrome may indicate a high risk of developing cardiac amyloidosis, according to study from All of Us Research Program

Physician-scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine led a nationwide study to examine the role of carpal tunnel syndrome in predicting the risk of cardiac amyloidosis. In their study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, UAB researchers collaborated with researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University to show that carpal tunnel syndrome preceded the development of cardiac amyloidosis by 10-15 years and individuals with carpal tunnel syndrome were at a high risk of developing cardiac amyloidosis. “Cardiac amyloidosis is an underdiagnosed ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Suissa study has high hopes for plant-ant partnerships

Collaborations across research disciplines can lead to unexpected breakthroughs and discoveries. Collaborations across species lead to unexpected evolutionary paths of mutual benefit. For example, some plants have managed to recruit ant bodyguards. They produce sugary nectar on their leaves that attracts the ants, then these very territorial and aggressive ant mercenaries patrol “their” plant and sting or bite herbivores that try to eat it. These relationships are well-documented in flowering plants, but they also occur in non-flowering ferns. This is weird news for researchers, as it has long been thought that ferns lack the ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

LJI scientists develop new method to match genes to their molecular 'switches'

LA JOLLA, CA—Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have developed a new computational method for linking molecular marks on our DNA to gene activity. Their work may help researchers connect genes to the molecular "switches" that turn them on or off. This research, published in Genome Biology, is an important step toward harnessing machine learning approaches to better understand links between gene expression and disease development. "This research is about bringing a three-dimensional perspective to studying DNA modifications and their function in our genome," says LJI Associate Professor Ferhat Ay, Ph.D., who co-led the study with LJI ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Most surface ozone contributing to premature mortality in European countries is imported

Exposure to current levels of ground-level ozone (O3) in Europe is one of the main causes of premature mortality due to air pollution, especially in summer. A study led both by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, in collaboration with the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), has quantified for the first ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Fresh findings: Earliest evidence of life-bringing freshwater on Earth

New Curtin-led research has found evidence that fresh water on Earth, which is essential for life, appeared about four billion years ago - five hundred million years earlier than previously thought. Lead author Dr Hamed Gamaleldien, Adjunct Research Fellow in Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and an Assistant Professor at Khalifa University, UAE, said by analysing ancient crystals from the Jack Hills in Western Australia’s Mid West region, researchers have pushed back the timeline ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Kinship and ancestry of the Celts in Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The burial mounds of Eberdingen-Hochdorf and Asperg-Grafenbühl, known as Fürstengräber, are among the richest burials of German prehistory, with gold finds and elaborate bronze vessels. A new genetic analysis has now revealed that the two princes, buried about 10 kilometers apart, were biologically closely related. "It has long been suspected that the two princes from the burial mounds in Eberdingen-Hochdorf and Asperg ‘Grafenbühl‘ were related," says Dirk Krausse of the State Office for the ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

How sharks survived a major spike in Earth’s temperature

The sharks we know today as the open ocean’s top predators evolved from stubby bottom dwellers during a dramatic episode of global warming millions of years ago. A massive outpouring of volcanic lava about 93 million years ago sent carbon dioxide levels soaring, creating a greenhouse climate that pushed ocean temperatures to their hottest. UC Riverside researchers discovered that some sharks responded to the heat with elongated pectoral fins. This discovery is documented in a paper published today in the journal Current Biology. It was made by taking body length and fin measurements from over 500 living and fossilized shark species. “The ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

The unexpected connection between brewing coffee and understanding turbulence

In 1883 Osborne Reynolds injected ink into water in a short, clear pipe to observe its movement. His experiments showed that as the input water velocity increased, the flow went from laminar (smooth and predictable) to turbulent (unsteady and unpredictable) through the development of localized patches of turbulence, known today as “puffs.” His work helped launch the field of fluid mechanics, but, as experiments often do, it raised more questions. For example, why do these transitions between laminar and turbulent flows occur and how can the transitions be characterized quantitatively? Although ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Transition-metal-free zeolite catalyst for direct conversion of methane to methanol

In light of the waste-to-wealth movement, technology for converting greenhouse gases into value-added materials has gained significant attention in recent years. One such technology is the catalytic conversion of methane into methanol, a widely used industrial solvent and raw material for chemical synthesis. The industrial process for conversion of methane to methanol is extremely energy and resource-intensive. In the past decade, scientists have developed several catalyst systems that can enable direct oxidation of methane to methanol. However, most of them are based on ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

A dark side to dark chocolate? New study finds very minimal risk for kids from metals in chocolates

Chocolate lovers may have been alarmed by a 2023 Consumer Reports finding that some dark chocolate brands could contain harmful levels of lead and cadmium. However, a new study by Tulane University published in Food Research International has found that dark chocolate poses no adverse risk for adults and contains nutritionally beneficial levels of essential minerals. The study sampled 155 dark and milk chocolates from various global brands sold in the United States and tested for the presence of 16 heavy metals ranging from the toxic (lead and cadmium) to the essential (copper, iron, zinc). The study then modeled the risk of eating one ounce of the chocolates per day which ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Crucial shift in River Nile’s evolution during ancient Egypt discovered

Crucial shift in River Nile’s evolution during ancient Egypt discovered Researchers have explored how the River Nile evolved over the past 11,500 years and how changes in its geography could have helped shape the fortunes of ancient Egyptian civilisation. Research published in Nature Geoscience reveals a major shift in the Nile around four thousand years ago, after which the floodplain in the Nile Valley around Luxor greatly expanded. The findings raise the possibility that this shift could have contributed to the success of the ancient Egyptian agricultural economy at points between the Old and New Kingdom periods. ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Most sleep tips shared on TikTok are supported by scientific evidence

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found that most sleep tips shared on TikTok are supported by empirical evidence. The research findings show that of 35 unique sleep tips shared in popular videos, there was empirical support for 29. Only six sleep tips were unsupported by scientific evidence. “These results suggest that the sleep research and sleep medicine communities have done a good job of promoting appropriate tips for sleep hygiene,” said lead author Brian T. Gillis, who has studied sleep for eight years and is an assistant professor of marriage and family therapy in the College of Human Sciences ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Low-dose aspirin reduces inflammation caused by sleep loss

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found that low-dose acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin, can reduce inflammatory responses to sleep restriction. Results show that compared with placebo, preemptive administration of low-dose aspirin during sleep restriction reduced pro-inflammatory responses. Specifically, aspirin reduced interleukin-6 expression and COX-1/COX-2 double positive cells in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated monocytes, as well as C-reactive protein serum levels. “The novelty of this study is that it investigated whether we can pharmacologically reduce the inflammatory consequences of sleep restriction,” ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Scientists develop “x-ray vision” technique to see inside crystals

A team of New York University researchers has created a new way to visualize crystals by peering inside their structures, akin to having X-ray vision. Their new technique—which they aptly named “Crystal Clear”—combines the use of transparent particles and microscopes with lasers that allow scientists to see each unit that makes up the crystal and to create dynamic three-dimensional models. “This is a powerful platform for studying crystals,” says Stefano Sacanna, professor of chemistry at NYU and the principal investigator for the study, published in the journal Nature ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Efficient CO2 conversion to fuels and chemicals using ionic liquid electrolyte

Converting CO2 into fuel and chemicals using electricity, also known as electrochemical conversion of CO2, is a promising way to reduce emissions. This process allows us to use carbon captured from industries and the atmosphere and turn it into resources that we usually get from fossil fuels. To advance ongoing research on efficient electrochemical conversion, scientists from Doshisha University have introduced a cost-effective method to produce valuable hydrocarbons from CO2. The study was made available online on 17 May 2024 and formally published in the journal Electrochimica Acta on 20 July 2024. The research team, led by Professor Takuya Goto and including Ms. Saya Nozaki from ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

Intoxication without alcohol: Auto-brewery syndrome

How can someone have alcohol intoxication without consuming alcohol? Auto-brewery syndrome, a rare condition in which gut fungi create alcohol through fermentation, is described in a case study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.231319. “Auto-brewery syndrome carries substantial social, legal, and medical consequences for patients and their loved ones,” writes Dr. Rahel Zewude, University of Toronto, with coauthors. “Our patient had several [emergency department] visits, was assessed by internists and psychiatrists, and was certified ...

Read the release

Science3 Jun 2024

New biomarkers will enable personalised influenza vaccination schedule

Berlin, Germany: While influenza infection is a significant public health threat, causing serious illness in between three and five million people worldwide per year and leading to about up to 650,000 deaths, the effectiveness of influenza vaccines varies considerably between individuals depending on vaccine types and individual circumstances. A person’s ability to resist infection (host immunity) plays an important role in this. Now, researchers have developed a way of classifying host immunity in individuals, which may lead to the early identification of those who will not respond well to a regular vaccine schedule and therefore ...

Read the release